


Ambition and Bravery

by zephsomething



Series: Surviving the War [58]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:47:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26225149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephsomething/pseuds/zephsomething
Summary: Harry and an itty bitty James attend one of Andromeda's talks
Relationships: Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter
Series: Surviving the War [58]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/813804
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	Ambition and Bravery

**Author's Note:**

> Fay is an actual canon character, I’m not against using ocs but she’s apparently an actual character and I’m thrilled about it. What kind of crazy UK person names their child Fay that’s just tempting fate. (According to the Wiki she wasn’t in the DA but I’m feeling like I don’t really care enough about the specifics of canon, maybe her presence just wasn’t ‘relevant’ to Harry’s story)
> 
> I'm back from camp y'all! It was fun and I'm going camping again this coming weekend! Hopefully with the school year starting up (kind of) again, I will get back on a more reasonable 1-2 fics a week schedule! 
> 
> And as always a huge thanks to @ithopoiia for editing!!

The invitation to Andromeda’s talk hadn’t been unexpected but its source had been. Andromeda rarely personally invited people to the talks, mailing lists for the fliers sure, but not a proper invitation. 

So Harry put James in the nicest clothes he could convince him to stay in and RSVP’d for one and a half. The convention room was a strange mix of ancient and modern that reminded him of Hogwarts more than anything else ever had. In size and shape it was clearly styled after the kind of convention halls you’d find in a muggle hotel, all high ceilings and movable walls that had all been removed for this event. Large quarter moon tables spread out around the room all set up so everyone faced the stage that ran along the far wall, each seat had a place card in front of it. Among the furniture were hundreds of people mingling before the event started. The biggest difference was the stage. No matter where you stood the stage seemed to be nearly right in front of you and there were none of the muggle microphones you'd find in a hotel.

“What do you think James?” He asked as he shifted James to a more comfortable position on his hip to avoid having to wave at any of the people who were looking at him. These sorts of events always made him deeply uncomfortable; even when they weren't about him.

“Snack.” James pointed empathically towards one of the tables. 

“You had a snack before we left.” Harry sighed and started scanning the tables for his name. “That was hardly even ten minutes ago.”

“Snack!” He repeated, this time pointing at his mouth.

“Yeah, yeah, just a sec bud.” Harry found his name fairly close to the stage but not close enough that he had to worry overmuch about anyone on stage seeing him. That was good he’d been having second thoughts relating to Lockhart all day. “You want your own chair bud? Your name is here.”

“Snack! My chair!” He started wiggling almost immediately and climbed into the chair as soon as Harry put him down. Once in the seat James looked up at him and swapped to parseltongue, which wasn’t unusual in their household. He knew more words in parseltongue than he did in English. “<Cheese snack? Little meat?>”

“<You’re going to scare them.>” Harry gestured around at the people nearby who were giving them looks like they were remembering all the things people had said about him over the years.

“Nope!” He grinned and patted the table in front of him. “Snack time, snack time, snack time.”

“Alright bud.” Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a granola bar. “Start with this.”

“Harry! You got roped into this too then?” Fay looked tired as she walked up to them. She had new scars too since the last time Harry had seen her. “How’d they get you? Kingsley can’t order you to come to these things anymore.”

“James!” James called out as Fay got to her seat on Harry’s other side.

“Why hello! I remember you little man.” Fay grinned and reached over Harry for a high five from James. "You've gotten bigger since I saw you last."

“He never waits to be introduced anymore.” Harry sighed then shrugged at her question. “One of the speakers, Andromeda, asked me personally to come.”

“Yeah I wouldn’t turn that down either.” Fay got that look on her face that was equal parts awe and fear, the same kind of expression that people who didn’t know better got around him still. “She’s amazing.”

“And you’re not the godfather of her grandson, you wouldn’t even have to live with the constant reminders that you didn’t accept the invitation.” His grin was wry. “So the aurors still treating you well?”

“Yeah, I know it wasn’t it for you but…” She shrugged one shoulder. “It works for me.”

“There’s only so many years anyone can spend hunting down dark wizards and I’ve always liked teaching more than anything else.”

“You’re still the best defense teacher I had at hogwarts.” She laughed. “Except maybe Lupin, he knew what he was talking about.”

Then the lights were dimming and the rest of the milling people filed into their seats. The first couple speakers made Harry extremely grateful that plates of food appeared in front of them as soon as the lights went down. He might have fallen asleep otherwise. It wasn’t that they were particularly boring, it was just that he’d attended so many talks with people just like them that they all sort of blurred together. They all talked about loyalty and strength and coming together in hard times. It was like every sorting hat song but in three thousand words and a monotone voice.

When Andromeda walked up to the podium the quiet murmur that had started up during the last two speakers cut out abruptly. By the time she reached center stage the room was silent.

“Thank you,” Her tone was dry but Harry recognized the quick tic up of her lip and the tilt of her head as something akin to laughter. “I’m sure you all came entirely of your own free will but do try to stay with us.”

Quiet laughter rippled through the crowd as James looked up from remashing his potatoes.

“Aunt ‘Dromeda?” He looked at Harry and then frowned seriously towards the spotlight.

“Yes.” Harry agreed easily.

“Some of you might have known my daughter, or known of her at least.” As Andromeda started speaking silence reined again. “The name I gave her was Nymphadora but she much preferred to go simply by Tonks, which was the name her father gave her. Those of you who knew her as an adult will remember her as an accomplished auror and a force to be reckoned with, I mostly remember that she never could quite get the hang of any household spells and never picked up her socks.”

Harry let out a laugh at that, along with a handful of others. The comment back brought with crystal clarity a memory of Tonks trying to help him pack to go to Grimmauld Place all those years ago.

“I bring her up first because her death is, in large part, why I’m here tonight.” She paused here and let the tension that statement caused hang in the air a moment. “She was hell on wheels to raise, a headache for her teachers, a brilliant woman, and my only child. She was also a Hufflepuff whose mother refused to be anything but proud that she was a Slytherin.”

This time it wasn’t laughter but a worried sort of buzz that drifted into the pause between her words. Harry glanced at James to see his potato art abandoned for the moment as he watched the stage with the intensity nearly two year olds rarely manage to have.

“My husband, her father, doesn’t show up in any of our history books but he was just as wonderful and just as important as she was. He died barely a month before she did, just long enough for her child to be named for him, for his death. His name was Edward, it's a muggle name.” She looked out at the crowd as if waiting for someone to challenge the picture she’d just painted, that a pure blooded Slytherin had married a muggleborn and raised a happily willful daughter. “He was killed for his bloodline and she was killed for her allegiances and her refusal to be anything but proud of her parents. However, the war is not what I’m here to talk about today. Everyone and their grandmother has talked about the war, the heroes who came from it, and the fall of Voldemort. I’m here to talk about the future and the children who will have their place in it. I’m here to remind you that just because we are recovering and moving on from our past does not give us an excuse to forget it.”

This time when she paused to drink the whole gathering was silent, waiting for her to continue.

“I had green on my robes, my daughter and husband had yellow, and I couldn’t tell you what colour my grandson will have but I can tell you I will be proud of him no matter which house he chooses. And it is a choice. The wand may choose the witch but the witch chooses her house.” She drew herself up then, shoulder going back and chin going high. It was the pose of someone who had pride written into her bones. “I choose ambition, loyalty, and cunning and there is nothing wrong with that. The wrongness lies in that we teach our children that a snake is born evil, a lion is born good, a raven is born smart, and a badger is what’s left. What’s wrong is that we teach our children to divide themselves based on a handful of traits, and to hate based on that same division, when we should teach them that no roof can stand without all four supporting pillars.”

There was a smattering of timid applause which Andromeda acknowledged with a smile and a nod.

“When we teach our children about Hogwarts, it’s founders, and its history we need to focus less on the differences and more on the similarities. Is there so much difference between cunning and cleverness? Between ambition and bravery? Dedication and resourcefulness? We need to teach them that Salazar didn’t break away because of the differences in personality but because he was a bigoted git who refused to change with the tides.” A cheer went up again but this time Andromeda squelched it with a look. “We also need to teach them that Godric threw him out without so much as a conversation. That while the men fought Rowena was too busy trying to be the brightest star to notice the cracks in her friends. We need to teach them that Helga was left alone to try her damnedest to look after the school that the other founders left behind. We need to teach them that the only house without dark stains on it’s past is Hufflepuff because Helga was the one who taught kindness, who taught inclusion, who encouraged her children and students to work hard and work together. I never knew a warmer place at Hogwarts than the Hufflepuff common room and that was by design.”

A curious murmur had erupted and Andromeda used the pause to have a drink as the room went quiet again. No one wanted her to leave without explaining her thoughts.

“Did you know that the Hufflepuff common room is the only one without a password?” Her tone changed slightly, asking rather than lecturing. “I was astounded when I found out, I still remember the first time my husband, then simply the boy who’d found me crying and taken pity without regard to the colour on my robes, took me to his common room. It was so easy to get in. You see Rowena in her tower only wanted the brightest, cleverest students so she charmed riddles into her door, Godric and Salazar, ever the traditionalists, put guards and codes on their common rooms, but Helga simply wanted her students to have a home that welcomed them. And welcome is exactly what she charmed into that common room. In these times of change and strangeness I think we should all take a leaf out of the Hufflepuff code of conduct, aim for welcome without judging by the colour they chose as a child.”

This time the cheering and applause was met with a small head nod from Andromeda as she stepped back from the podium. James, despite having gone back to his mashed potato art halfway through her speech, cheered along with everyone else, as nearly two year olds generally do.

The lights went up and Harry couldn’t help but think that the other speakers were lucky none of them had had to follow Andromeda. He and James joined the throng of people who were heading up to the stage to say hello or congratulations to the speakers. She had only seconds to exchange pleasantries with him before other people claimed her attention and James claimed his.

“Daddy! Daddy!” James tugged him towards a table that delicious looking dessert plates were appearing on. “Treats!”

“Hmm, I wonder if little boys who don’t eat their potatoes should get treats?” Harry asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Daaad!” James tugged on his arm again. Harry laughed but let James drag him towards the dessert table regardless as to the amount of potatoes that had been left on his plate. Harry filled a plate with more dessert than they’d had dinner and found an empty table for the two of them to sit at.

The next forty minutes was spent alternating between making small talk with the numerous people who came over to talk to him because he was The Boy Who’d Lived, twice over now, and trying to convince James that eating sugar didn’t mean you needed to play sillybuggers at a fancy gathering. The person who was currently talking to him, or at him rather, had been standing in front of him for nearly five minutes and Harry had stopped listening to what they were saying three minutes ago.

“Could I but in? I know Harry from school you see, yes I’m that one. I’m glad you could make it to the talk, thank you.” Harry looked up to see who had come to save him and was surprised to see Malfoy standing in front of him, now between him and the person he was more or less shooing away.

“Malfoy?”

“Ahh,” Malfoy turned around with an expression that seemed almost sheepish or like he’d suddenly forgotten why he’d come over. “I just came over to uh, well apologize for well, everything. I was a kid back then, so were you of course but it’s just running into you the other day made me realize I never did apologize for all that. I know apologizing doesn’t change all the things I’ve done but-”

“It can be a start.” Harry interrupted Malfoy, listening him go on was only going to get more uncomfortable for them both. Not to mention he looked genuinely upset about the whole thing. He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “We were both given rather restrictive roles back then anyway.”

“We still made our choices ourselves, or at least I did.” Malfoy’s smile had a sort of sorrow to it and Harry found himself inexplicably wanted to make him feel better. 

“As best we could I suppose.” For lack of a better way to help Harry simply agreed with him.

“That’s all I came over to say really, and because you looked about ready to bolt from that other one.” Malfoy made a half completed gesture with his hand and then shrugged. “See you around I suppose?”

“Yeah, see you around.” Harry smiled at him and it felt more genuine than most of the smiles he’d directed at people that evening.

If Harry hadn’t known better he would have said Malfoy had a skip in his step as he walked back to his family. Andromeda reached out to ruffle his hair as he reached them, like he was a child, and Astoria said something that made herself and Andromeda laugh. Teddy was looking up at Narcissa with a rather indignant expression from where he was holding onto Andromeda’s robes. She was doing her best to get his hair, which was black and streaked with what was either blond or silver today, to flatten out.

They could have been the perfect picture of a pureblood family if not for the way Teddy had a smear of something on his face and Malfoy looked so warm and happy at his wife and the bundle that had to be his new son. In fact the only one who still looked like the pureblood she’d been raised to be was Narcissa but even she looked softer and more worn than Harry remembered her looking before everything. 

Harry got pulled out of his thoughts as yet another witch came up to him because she ‘just had to meet the boy who lived’ and he tried not to look too tense as he pulled a significantly less warm smile onto his face. He doubted he’d last much longer before he used James as an excuse to duck out the back and go home. Away from all these people who cared less about who he was than about the role that had been pressed into his skin as a baby.

**Author's Note:**

> 💜💚💙 Thanks for reading everyone! 💙💚💜


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